With the Young Democrats and College Republicans getting their share of attention on campus, two ASU students are starting a club to promote Libertarian ideals among students.
Marketing sophomore Duncan Carey is organizing the group ASU Students for Liberty and expects 300 students will join once it gets started in the next two weeks.
Carey started the Facebook.com group Center Complex Libertarians last semester with finance and economics sophomore Alexander Falkenstein, the other organizer of ASU Students for Liberty. The group had 155 members as of Tuesday night.
Carey said the popularity of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's presidential run among students has generated interest in the Libertarian party.
Although the Texas congressman is running for president as a Republican in 2008, Paul ran as the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988.
"All of his ideas, with a couple exceptions, are Libertarian," Carey said.
The two group organizers said they hope to grow ASU's Students for Liberty until it rivals the already established political groups on campus — the College Republicans and Young Democrats.
The principle that Carey and Falkenstein said is most important to them and all Libertarians is freedom.
"You have to have freedom on all levels," Carey said. "You can't make exceptions."
Most Libertarians support abortion rights, legalizing marijuana and leaving the decision whether to use drugs up to the individual, and allowing health care to be regulated by the free market rather than the government, Carey and Falkenstein said.
"I believe it all comes down to private-property rights," Falkenstein said. "Freedom of speech, religion — those are property rights."
The Libertarian party takes some ideas from each of the two major parties, Duncan said.
"On social issues, it's more liberal," he said. "Economically, they're more like Republicans."
Falkenstein summed up the party as "fiscally responsible" and "socially liberal."
Many times people don't understand what Libertarians believe, Carey said.
"Part of the problem is, a lot of people are afraid of jumping into a third party," Carey said.
Both Carey and Falkenstein have been active politically in the past, they said.
Falkenstein interned at the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, a Phoenix-based non-profit organization that promotes low taxes and controlled government spending.
Carey volunteered for Libertarian candidate Barry Hess's campaign for governor of Arizona in 2006 and has been working for the Paul campaign this year.
The best way to get involved is to join the Facebook group, "ASU Students for Liberty," Carey said.
The group, which was created on Monday night, had 25 members by Tuesday afternoon.
"Facebook has just been a ginormous help," Carey said.
Carey added that the group will not be officially associated with the Libertarian party but will support any candidate that promotes Libertarian ideals — including Republican candidate Paul.
Carey and Falkenstein added that they hope to contact the presidents of the ASU College Republicans and Young Democrats to hold a debate to show more than just the two parties' views.
"I just hate the idea that you have to pick one or the other," Carey said.
Reach the reporter at: leigh.munsil@asu.edu.
